ATLANTA — Federal officials will retain oversight of Georgia's behavioral health system after the state failed to move enough developmentally disabled people out of state-run hospitals.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (http://bit.ly/1dAlu0W ) that the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities was supposed to move 750 people out of state institutions and into community homes as part of a 2010 agreement with the Department of Justice. The settlement with federal officials was focused on 9,000 patients and came after reports of patient deaths and allegations of abuse.
The newspaper reported that about 500 people had been moved out of state facilities by the end of June, short of the goal established in the agreement. The department suspended patient transfers after allegations surfaced that they were being abused in their new homes and had limited access to medical care. The suspension was lifted in December.
"It was an important pause for us and a difficult one for us," the department's Chief of Staff Judy Fitzgerald said. "We had to acknowledge we had to do more preparation." The department is now working with health care professionals to make sure patients are ready to transition out of state-run institutions, she said.
Independent reviewer Elizabeth Jones wrote in a March report that the department has made progress bolstering the community-based support system for patients with severe developmental disabilities.
"The state has now created, particularly for people with mental illness, a fragile but growing community system based on dignity, independence and value," said Talley Wells with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society.
Department officials have submitted a plan to the Department of Justice on how the state will work toward meeting goals that were outlined in the agreement.
